Dancing at a Wedding

At my cousin's wedding party, I wanted to join the people dancing but felt glued to my chair. Sometimes, I feel hesitant to shake my hips, and this was one of them. Because most of the dancers were women, I felt obligated to be a good role model for the young boys at the party. So I stood up and shuffled over towards the group. At first, I felt slightly strange dancing in front of my mother and other family members, but I soon relaxed and had a wonderful time.

This incident reminded me of the correlation between risk and reward. Some activities, such as remaining seated, are low risk but consequently low reward. We avoid feeling embarrassed, but we miss out on the fun of dancing. Secondly, Some activities like dancing in a Congo line or some other preordained movement are medium risk. Social proof manages the risk of feeling embarrassed, but this comes at the expense of self-expression. Lastly, some activities like dancing freely in front of a group of people involve the highest risk of feeling embarrassed yet can also make us happiest.

Here is the situation in matrix form:

RatingActionRiskRewardLowStay seatedHave less funAvoid feeling embarrassedMediumGroup DanceFeel slightly awkwardEnjoy communal activity with minimal self-expressionHighFree DancingFeel embarrassedCreative expression increased confidence

Here is the situation graphically:

I made the reward of not dancing especially small because based on past experiences if I am avoiding dancing, the inaction usually makes me feel embarrassed.

Adjusting for Opportunity Costs

The first graph left out the opportunity costs. In microeconomics, opportunity cost is the benefit that one could have enjoyed if (s)he chose the best alternative.

Here is the graph adjusted for opportunity costs:

The new risk equals the old risk plus the difference between the highest and respective reward

Takeaways:

The "data" indicates we should dance at the wedding party. Obviously, I made up these numbers, and people experience embarrassment differently, but I believe the situation holds for most people. A secondary takeaway is from the medium profile. Due to its seemingly smaller risk profile, it is likely a good entry point for those of us who are not as comfortable dancing to our own beat. For this reason, I wish there were more ritualistic dance ceremonies associated with modernity. Maybe, It could help us have a more musically participative culture.

Followup

Risk and reward are largely correlated. Here are some other observations which contributed to my desire to write this blog post:

Entrepreneur vs Employee

Investing

Dating and relationships

Speaking your mind vs Staying silent

Starting a Blog vs not Starting a blog

In the future, I will write about how to put yourself in situations with low risk and high reward. See you there.

I hope this post inspired you to take more healthy risks. What risk will you be taking?